


Blonding; Wind Twins

by Revantio



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, As The Yellow Flash's Twin, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, I hope he'll gain a more solid personality in this fanfic, Minato-centric, My First OC Insert fanfiction, Not self-insert tho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-24
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-09-26 13:41:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9900455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Revantio/pseuds/Revantio
Summary: Minato never asked for an older brother in his life. If he doesn't have one to begin with, Minato imagined, he will not ask anyone to give him one.“OI, MORONS! WHO THE HELL DID YOU CALL SISSY?! MY LITTLE BROTHER IS THE HANDSOMEST, AWESOMEST, KINDEST, CUTEST, BESTEST LITTLE BROTHER IN THIS WORLD! AND IF ANYONE HAS ANY RIGHT TO CALL HIM SISSY THEN IT’S ME!ME! ONLY ME!YOU HEAR THAT YOU PUNK?!”But now he have one; a twin on top of that, and yes, Minato decided, he loves his twin so much. Not that he'll admit that out loud.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Please don't kill me, guys  
> Must be boring to see my pen-name appear again on fandom works list

** 5 Years Old **

“I think you should be a ninja.”

Minato looks up to his twin brother, sitting on a branch higher than where he is and slightly frowns when he sees Makoto’s  signature bright grin.

“Why should I?” Minato inquired, “You don’t even want to be one.”

And while Minato is trying hard to catch up with his hyperactive, boisterous older twin brother, he’s not willing to do something his brother doesn’t take any part to. Not yet, at least. They always do things together, both of them. Minato mostly follows his brother’s step, calmed by his laughs and warmed by his grins.

But since that night when they both accidentally eavesdrop their parents talking to a neighbor about a possible Shinobi War coming, which somewhat developed to the talk of their kids’s future, Makoto is not as bright as always. Minato doesn’t really understand what the adults are talking about (he knows they mentioned Minato and Makoto few times, and mentioned about ninja and shinobi) and is very anxious to get caught, but Makoto, his brave bright older brother, seems to be understand as his blue eyes darkens and he clenches his fists. Minato assumed it may be because his twin doesn’t want Minato or himself to be ninja.

Then Makoto started to (fruitlessly) persuade Minato to be ninja ever since. Minato doesn’t understand his twin at all. If it made him sad, why does Minato have to be ninja? And why does Makoto insist he _can’t_ be a ninja?

Makoto rolled his eyes, “Who said that i don’t want to? I already told you i can’t be one, dear cutest brother.”

There Makoto again and his usual reason Minato doesn’t understand. Little Minato pouted to the nickname and Makoto laughs.

“Then i can’t be one, too.” Minato firmly said.

Makoto sighs, but then he wears that smirk he usually uses when he’s preparing a very devastating prank to those mean neighbours and Minato shivers. “We’ll see, dearest _otouto_ , we’ll see.”

** 5 Years and 5 Months Old **

The war did happen, and their parents parted away from the Namikaze twins.

Makoto lingers more to their parents, suddenly shows how much a spoiled brat he is; which makes Minato raises an eyebrow. Minato believes in their parent. They will win the war and defeat the bad guys. They will come back to them.

But seeing Makoto hugs each one of their mother and father tightly with glassy eyes and whining with shaky, high-pitched voice which is so unlike Makoto, Minato feels anxious. Makoto never cries. Sad maybe, chilling anger, silent frustration. But he never cry.

It makes Minato wants to cry, too.

Seeing their twins glassy eyes, their mother cried too, and for one last time, he hugged them both tightly. Their father lets out a strained smile and nodded, before he, too, pulled them both in a bear hug.

The twin watched their parents depart, waiting until their shadow disappeared on the horizon.

Makoto turned away quickly after that, rubbing tears away from his sapphire eyes. Minato lingers longer, thinking about ninja world, their parents, and then his own future. Does he wants to be one? Yes, a voice back in his mind eagerly replied. But does he want to leave Makoto behind like how their parents leave them behind?

Minato curled up his lips, and turned away, catching up with his twin.

** 5 Years and 8 Months Old **

Their parents didn’t come back.

The Hokage make a monumental stone, an ANBU knocked on their door and delivers a letter for both of them. The ANBU nodded when Minato takes the letter, quickly disappeared in swirling leaves.

Makoto eyed the black envelope, and he pulls out his hand, asking Minato to hand it to him. Minato did so, even though he’s confused. Makoto doesn’t want him to open the letter. But why? But Makoto’s eyes looked so grim and his expression is stone flat; it leaves no room to argue.

Minato watches Makoto rips open the envelope, and sees how his twin’s eyes trailed the words on pristine white paper. Makoto grips the letter too tight, the paper crumbles under his fingers and soon, he ripped the letter to pieces. Minato widens his eyes.

But before he could ask, Makoto turned away and said, “We’ll meet mom and dad,” he quietly said, “change to suits in 3rd closet.”

Suits in 3rd closet. Black suits, custom made, only used on special occasion. That is to say, a funeral.

Minato feels strangely numb. He follows his twin’s footsteps to their room, and they both changed in silent.

Men and women in black clothes pouring down the clearing, some sobbed, some looks devastated, and they both made their way through the front. His eyes scanned the name on monumental stones and Minato feels cold wind brushed his being. There are two Namikazes on it. Their mom’s and dad’s.

Minato can’t fully register what the Hokage said, he doesn’t know when the clearing has become empty when it’s clear not a minute ago it’s crowded with black. But he could feel Makoto’s hands slowly grips his, his fingers slowly curled up to his, and the next thing he knows, he’s pulled to a tight hug by his older brother.

Then it comes to Minato. His parents are gone. They will not come back. Soon he’ll forget his mother’s cooking, his father’s laugh will gone and their house will be very quiet. Because they are _dead_. And the twin are alone, now. Completely alone. They only have each other. Minato only had Makoto and he’s crying on his twin’s shoulder, sobbing and shaking for a seemingly long time. He could also feel Makoto’s shaking body in his arms and hears choked sobs in his ears. And for once, Minato is glad he’s not the only cry baby this time.

They will manage. They are alone, yes, but they will manage.

** 6 Years Old **

They moved to orphanage.

Makoto is reluctant to leave their parent’s heritage but the Hokage is right; it’s not healthy for them to dwell in the past. Minato, as per usual, follows his brother and offer logical advice here and there. The younger is always the voice of reason between the two of them, after all.

The older also has come back to his usual brash and bright self, much to Minato’s joy and exasperation. Sometimes he wonders who is actually the older between the two of them. But with Makoto bragging about his ‘cute, handsome, will be very _very_ awesome’ little brother, almost everyone in the orphanage, if not in the entire neighborhood, knows about the Namikaze twins; the older brash one and the younger calm one. Still, how Makoto acts sometimes makes Minato thinks he is the older one.

Like now, for example. How Makoto hanging upside down on tree branch invites amused yet horrified looks on other kids, and Minato could only stare at his supposed _aniki_ with unreadable expression.

Then Makoto pointed at the Hokage monument, and solemnly says, “One day, your face will be carved on it. And by your face, that means my face too since, you know, we have same face and all.”

Minato still stares.

“And you will be the most awesomest ninja in the entire world, _otouto_. The world will know your name and remember your face. You’ll plant fear simply by name. You _will_ end this war. The key is, to never give up. Ever. And always remember to _look underneath the underneath_.”

How Makoto could spew some wise and serious things while hanging upside down is... Minato isn’t sure how to react.

Minato sighs. “You can’t give exhortation while hanging upside down like that, Makoto.”

“Of course i can!” He cheerfully said. “I am your older brother, i can do anything i want!”

The younger fight the urge to roll his eyes. “Only by five minutes.” A pause, “now get down here, _aniki_ , or i’ll leave you behind.”

Makoto gawked, obviously exaggerating his surprised expression, “Who are you and what did you do to my cute handsome kind wise little brother?! Are you the one who caused this diziness too?!”

Just another day when Minato fought the urge to face palm or slam his head on nearby concrete.

** 8 Years Old **

Sometimes, Minato envy his older brother. It's probably because the way his grins lift up all worry in Minato's mind, or the way he drags Minato on meaningless but fun 'adventure' around the village, or how he understands Minato even in silence. His older twin is amazing, and sometimes he looks out of reach and Minato can't help but to envy.

Then Makoto will leap from building to building, swing from one tree branch to the others with impressive skill and flexibility and suddenly, Minato envy his older brother _very much_.

The first time Makoto leap from one rooftop to another, Minato almost had a heart-attack. Because he can’t see his brother’s body on building across where he stands right now and he’s afraid if his _aniki_ hurt himself and fell down the building, or hit his head or broke his bones or—

—then said brother waves excitedly with his signature big goofy grin and Minato exhales in relief. Minato tries to talk his brother out of doing dangerous things like that from time to time, but Makoto never listens. In fact, he seems to be more eager to jump here and there, be it to infuriate Minato or just to feel like flying.

Because that’s the reason why he does that. To feel like flying. _To be free_ , he said.

Minato tried once; a simple thing, really, leaping from one tree branch to another but he has no agility or speed on par with his brother to execute it. If not for Makoto’s strong hand who pulls him up then Minato is sure he’ll break his legs. It’s annoying, and sometimes frustrating; because they are twin. Identical being. They always do things together. What Makoto can do then Minato can do too, and vice versa. It’s the first time Minato can’t do something that Makoto can, and bitterly, he accepts that fact.

Minato has learned to simply follow where Makoto has gone on land, running and watching with awe on how his twin managed to roll around, leap, and twirl himself in the air while laughing. He looks so happy, and while he’s sad he can’t follow Makoto on the same ground, as long as they don’t get separated, then it’s okay.

Then they will end up in a clearing up Hokage Mountain, both sweaty and weary from jumping and running around the village. Makoto will grin, looking down at the village, and spread his hands widely,

“ _We are free_!”

Looking up to the bright blue sky above, how this moment is reserved for them alone, Minato thinks, yes, they are as free as they can be.

** 9 Years Old **

“I enrolled you to The Academy.”

Minato looks up from his book, surprised, then seconds after his expression turned betrayed.

“Relax, dear brother, i enrolled myself too.”

Makoto grinned as he picks up a book titled ‘basic _chakra_ control exercise’ and sits down in front of his twin. Minato looks a little relieved but he's still gazing at his twin suspiciously. Makoto rolls his eyes.

“Do you think i don’t know you won’t attend the Academy without me?”

Minato frowned, “But you said—“

“I changed my mind.” Makoto cuts. “Our... parents said i can’t be a ninja, you know.” He slowly said, and Minato widens his eyes, “i think they talked about my _chakra_ reserve being too low for a ninja, but too much to be a civilian’s too. It’s something between civilian’s and low-ranked ninja’s.” Makoto shrugs, “I don’t know. But whatever. To hell with it. If i can’t be a ninja then i can at least try to be one, right?”

Minato smiled. “I thought for a moment you aren’t my older brother there,” he calmly said, “i don’t recall my older twin could be so wise like this.”

“And i don’t recall my cute little brother being so sassy like this.” Makoto makes exaggerated shocked yet horrified noises. “You’ll be surprised on what wise things i could spew, Minato.”

“Like what?”

“Like, do you know what goes first? The egg or chicken?”

The younger looks taken aback the random question and his brother’s grin. He can’t answer, but apparently it’s not a problem since Makoto continued.

“It’s the chicken, since it can think. ‘I think, therefore i am.’ Eggs couldn’t think so they don’t exist before the chicken.”

Minato looks dumbfounded, then concerned, and confused. All those emotions flickers so fast and Makoto burst out laughing.

** 10 Years Old **

Unsurprisingly, the Namikaze twin has become popular in the Academy.

The teachers adore the calm and smart Minato, while the students adore the friendly and bright Makoto. But no matter how the teachers irritated by Makoto and his antics, the older of the two always managed to get high score. He’s a genius like his younger twin, and the younger twin is actually as friendly as the older if you tried talking to him.

But while Minato would excels on everything, Makoto will get very down on anything related to chakra. Nobody mocks him as dead-last though, as they all encouraged by him and in return, they too encouraged Makoto to continue. Often times Makoto will bounce back up from every failures but other times, Makoto will shrug, shows a strained smile and said, “It’s okay, it’s not my thing anyway.”

Minato will get worried if that happens, but a _taijutsu_ spar between the twin usually eases tension on Makoto.

Because Makoto is a top-notch on taijutsu. Not even Uchiha Fugaku and the smart Mikoto Uchiha with their special Uchiha style taijutsu could beat him on taijutsu class. In fact, no clan kids in their class could beat Makoto. Not that they can beat Minato either but Makoto is on a whole another level. The only one who stand a chance against Makoto is Minato himself.

Where Minato’s _taijutsu_ style is more to observe, evade, and strike on the right time using academy’s usual _taijutsu_ style, Makoto’s style, while similar in observe and evade aspects, is very peculiar and unique. It’s a style only he can use. Rather than fighting, Makoto always looks like he’s dancing; he grins, laughs, light steps,  flips in mid-air and other acrobatic moves only he could pull.

It’s full of surprise and more often than not, Minato founds himself mirroring his twin’s grins on their spar.

Minato could tell how the students get quiet and awed every time this match happens, even the teacher is enjoying the show.

Still, all those fame are still not enough to drove the bullies away.

They really likes to call Minato with girly name. Or simply called him ‘girl.’ Or Sissy. Actually, it’s more often sissy. Because Minato’s long hair, his calm and collected demeanor, his polite smile and his love on reading books actually makes other boys thinks of him as girly. Minato ignored them most of the time, of course. They are just jealous to them. And they can’t bully Makoto if they don’t want to get beaten up so Minato is a really juicy target. It hurts sometimes and it’s not like they do any real harm but—

“OI, MORONS! WHO THE HELL DID YOU CALL SISSY?! MY LITTLE BROTHER IS THE HANDSOMEST, AWESOMEST, KINDEST, CUTEST, BESTEST LITTLE BROTHER IN THIS WORLD! AND IF ANYONE HAS ANY RIGHT TO CALL HIM SISSY THEN IT’S ME! _ME_! _ONLY ME_! YOU HEAR THAT YOU PUNK?!”

—his brother.

Minato covers his fave with his book then, and prayed to whatever God it is to just swallow him to earth. He seriously never asked for a twin in his life, but now he got one and yes, embarrassedly, irritatedly, Minato admits, he does love his twin so much.

** 11 Years Old **

In their second year, the twin got pretty much more attention from clan kids in their class, as the civilian kids mostly get eliminated last year. Unsurprisingly, Minato managed to form a circle of friendship formed by Shikaku Nara and Inoichi Yamanaka. And his twin, Makoto, is a fine definition of free, as there are no civilian kids fawning over him anymore. Sometimes he’ll hang out with Tsume Inuzuka, or Aburame Shibi. Sometimes he’ll drag Minato so they could play with the Hyuuga twin, Hiashi and Hizashi. By play he means studying _tenketsu_ points and anatomy.

All is pretty much good, until the class has first seat to watch Makoto’s mother-henning tendencies.

It all started with something harmless enough; a simple discussion in the middle of afternoon, after class. Minato enjoyed his time with Shikaku and Inoichi, when suddenly, Makoto drops down from nearby tree and rolls to sit between them.

Minato, far too used to his twin acrobatics, only smiled, while his friend stared at the newcomer like he just grew another head.

“My cute little brother!” Makoto opens his hands, grinning widely, then proceed to hug said cute little brother and pats his head, much to Minato’s annoyance.

Makoto glanced at Shikaku and Inoichi then—both surprised by calculating blue eyes on his face. But then the serious atmosphere broke once again as Makoto shows his signature goofy grins, “I see you’ve made some best friends, Minato!”

Best friends? “Perhaps,” A pause, “What of it?”

“Oh nothing!” Makoto said in a sing-song voice, hands waving in dismissal. But then he narrows his eyes, “I just want to tell them if they leave you alone then i’ll hunt them down and kill them with my own hands.”

 _What_.

“Take care of my cute little brother here or i’ll murder you and hang your corpses on Hokage Monument myself.”

Silence.

“That’s all!” Makoto laughed then, breaking the ice like it’s never there, then gets up and pats dirt out of his pants. “What do you want for dinner, Minato?”

Minato blanched at the thought of Makoto cooking, using orphanage’s kitchen and causes chaos like that one time he tried to make a simple omelet.

“ _No_.” He firmly said. “You are _not_ going to get close to any kitchen.”

“ _Aaaww_! You do like my cooking, cute brother!”

And that’s it, Minato ever so calm Namikaze loses his cool, “They aren’t even edible!” He _screeched_ , “Makoto i swear to god—“

Said blond disappeared with sound of maniac cackles, and while Minato face-palmed, Shikaku and Inoichi looks at Minato with amused expressions.

But then Inoichi said, “Do you know how weird it is to see your face threatening people with cold glare then grinning and cackling like a maniac a second after, Minato?”

Minato stares at the silver-blond.

“..nevermind, then.”


	2. Chapter 2

**12 Years Old**

It’s the last year of academy and there’s a new student in the class. Minato knows she’s new because he remembers all the kids from second year, and even if many got eliminated but he’s sure he never saw a kid with that bright red hair in Academy before. Not in the entire village, even.

Her fiery red hair sways naturally in the air and she has an equally fiery glint in her violet blue-ish eyes. Her expression’s might be too fierce on her chubby face but for Minato, it only makes her different from other girls. She might look like a sore thumb here with her somewhat regal and out-standing features and if he’s not mistaken... red hair is common from a regal ally clan of Konoha, isn’t it? What’s the name of the clan again? Uzu—?

The kids are starting to introduce themselves again as the start of the year, plus saying what will their dreams will be.

“My name is Kushina Uzumaki! And I will be the first female Hokage ever!”

His blue eyes looks around and majority of the kids has began snickering; either it’s because her  ridiculous (for them)red hair, or her (not) stupid dream. Minato meets Makoto’s eyes, who is currently sitting leisurely in a left corner behind him. He looks bored but he has this calculating glint in his eyes when he looks at (huffing, growling, _angry_ ) Kushina.  Then he grinned goofily and waves to Minato.

The introductions continue and Minato could only smile to his twin before he, too, stands up and smiles to the class.

“My name is Minato Namikaze. My dream is to be strong enough to protect people i love.”

The class has began staring; while most of the clan kids seems to be looking at Minato with a new angle again. Minato understands if majority of the class doesn’t understand his dreams. He calmly sits down then, ignoring Kushina Uzumaki’s indignant huff.

Even if he’s pretty much remember all kids in this class, Minato still pays close attention to their introduction; just for being polite. Then it’s his twin’s turn and Minato perks up to what will his older twin say this year. He used the first year introduction to promote his cute little brother—him, Minato fought the urge to hide under the desk—and charm the entire class with his grins and easy-going attitude. Last year was pretty much normal, to  Minato’s relieved sigh. But this year? Minato isn’t sure.

Makoto stands up with his signature goofy grin, and begin. “Hi guys! I’m the older twin of my cute, smart, awesome, will be Hokage—“

There are snickers (good-natured, mostly) around, Minato’s smile strained as the kids glanced at him and again, he fights the urge to slam his head on the table.

“—Minato Namikaze there, my name is Makoto Namikaze! My dream is to help my brother reaches his dream and lead a happy _happy_ life!”

And just like that, the invisible tension of starting a new year and war on the horizon disappeared, as the kids snickers and smiles to see Makoto’s grins. His older twin always has a charm like that, and Minato sighs with a smile when the teacher begin the lesson.

 

* * *

 

They are walking out of the class when they hear the commotion.

Makoto and Minato shares a look, then quickly walks out of the class to see whats happening. Minato’s sapphire colored eyes could only widens in surprise when all he could see are red hair flowing wildly in the air, screams and yells of pain, and many bodies of male kids littered around one angry Kushina Uzumaki. From the edge of his vision, he could see Makoto also widens his eyes, surprised.

“A demon!” One of the freaked boys screeched.

“A Red-Blooded Habanero!” His friend nodding franctically.

Then Kushina turned her head to the screeching, alive boys, and they screeched more before they ran away, screaming, ‘Red blood habanero! Get away from her!’

Minato could feel sweat trickled down his face when Kushina turned to face the twins instead. How did she manage to make his hair flow on all direction like that? And that shining red eyes with black blank face. Is this a ninjutsu reserved only for women or? Makoto stares cautiously at her but made no move at all. Minato knows that his older twin is as nervous as him, facing the angry Uzumaki.

Then Kushina side-stepped all the bodies littered around her and make her way to the twins. Minato swallowed. Right in front of the twins, Kushina exhaled an irritating breath and suddenly, both Namikaze could see her scowling face, her hair flow down naturally and her posture defensive.

“ _What_?!” She shouted in front of them, “You want to tell the world how ugly my hair is or call me names too?! _Go on_!” The red-hair challenged while cracked her knuckles and scowl menacingly, but Minato could only use his blank-face facade.

Makoto broke out of his stupor then, raised an eyebrow, and suddenly Minato has this urge to shut his twin mouth before it’s too late. But he does nothing when Makoto opens his mouth.

“Are you okay?” He asked the Uzumaki casually, “Your face looks like constipated tomato, you know?”

And as Kushina’s expression turned shocked to enraged, then her face turned black blank with red glowing eyes and red hair flowing all the way, Minato seriously regrets his choice to ignore his urge earlier. Makoto smartly runs away and jumps up to nearby tree, then leap out from Academy’s gate’s wall, and Kushina follows, hot in his tail.

Minato stares.

To the scorched black trail where Kushina’s feet runs, to the place where they both disappear. And he closed his eyes when he hears faint yelling and more commotion. Really, he doesn’t want to know.

Tiredly, Minato walks to the orphanage.

 

* * *

 

“That woman is crazy!”

Minato looks up from the book in is hand, to see his older twin with his messed up glory enter the room through the window.

“She chased me even after i jumps up the roof! And trying to jumps up too!” Then Makoto slumps to a chair in front of him and trying to ease his ragged breathing.

The younger shakes his head. “I wonder why.” He flatly says.

“What?” Makoto asked defensively, glanced at his twin, “She does look like constipated tomato! Admit it, Minato!”

Minato sighed, and wonders if his twin could stop being so true to his name—being so painfully honest as ‘Makoto’ means ‘honesty’—and understand social value. But, Minato mused, he does understand. Makoto never call anyone names like that. He never calls Chouza fat, or Amane scrawny, or Shikaku lazy, even if they are all true. So why now? Why Kushina? Minato remembers his twin’s calculating gaze earlier and can’t help but stare at his twin in front of him.

“Why?” He blurted out, confused.

Makoto stares back at Minato. “Why what?”

He doesn’t want to answer, Minato realized. They understand each other perfectly, completely in sync, and Makoto understand the weight of Minato’s ‘Why?’ even without Minato explain. Why Kushina, why now, why did you do that? But Makoto asking back means he pretends to not understand or he doesn’t want to answer.

And Minato frowns. “Her read hair is beautiful.” He softly muttered. _She is beautiful_ , Minato inwardly thinks, and by those glint in Makoto’s eyes, Minato knows Makoto understand that. They are twins, after all.

But Makoto snorts. “She will be more beautiful without that scowl.”

Minato silently admits, that is true. But that doesn’t justify Makoto’s offensive words earlier and, as Minato stares again at his twin, Minato feels like he couldn’t understand him. Makoto picks up a book from a pile Minato has read, and begin reading, too. As his eyes trailed back to words in his hands, Minato shrugs off the uneasy feeling in his heart.

 

* * *

 

Since then, Makoto is eager to pull Minato out of Kushina Uzumaki’s way to hide with him. Minato doesn’t understand why, because he has absolutely no problem with Kushina.. So far they’ve been hiding to bushes, little gaps between buildings, up the trees, and behind boxes. Makoto somehow develops an instinct to know if Kushina is within twenty meters radius or something, to Minato’s surprise.

It has been two weeks since then, and Minato is pretty much feels safe to walk around alone.

Then he sees Kushina with her Red-Blood Habanero runs to him with an impossible speed and thinks that maybe, maybe his older twin is right on bringing him to hide with him after all. Frozen on his feet, Minato dodged the first punch Kushina launch with a sluggish side-step.

“Wait—“

But Kushina doesn’t listen, as she furiously throw another punch, and when Minato side-stepped it again, Kushina throw barrages of punches and kicks Minato narrowly dodges. Then Minato jumps away and raises his hands in surrender; fortunately, Kushina doesn’t jump to follow him and stares menacingly instead.

“Please!” He winces, “This is a misunderstand—“

Somehow that only fuel Kushina more, as she jumps forward and throws attacks more ferocious than before. In other situation, he would’ve praise Kushina’s stamina but this is a life-or-death condition for Minato and it’s getting really really hard with him refusing to attack Kushina. Minato staggers back, and he’s sure the next punch will connect with his jaw as he’s too late to raise his hand for defense but to his surprise, it never connects.

A yellow blur has jumped right between them, pushing Minato back. Minato blinked and he sees his twin holding Kushina’s fist in his hand, scowling to the red-head.

“What the hell, woman?!” He yelled, and when Minato blinks, its suddenly the usual Kushina scowling while flickering her eyes between the twins with hints of confusion.

“ _You_ —!”

“You have a problem with me, then _fine_.” Makoto push the fist back until Kushina staggers back, still scowling in anger to the older twin. “But do not, i warn you this time, do _not_ touch my little brother.”

Kushina gritted her teeth before she jumps forward to beat Makoto.

“Don’t—“

Minato’s warning comes too late as Makoto easily side-step the red-head, swoop her feet in a quick, graceful move. Minato grimaces when Kushina’ back hits the dirt with a loud thud, her violet blue-ish eyes widens to Makoto’s fist very closely in front of her face. Minato clicks his mouth shut when he sees the cold expression on his twin’s eyes. He couldn’t do anything if Makoto is on that mood. He only shows that expression tot he annoying bullies, anyway.

Then Makoto huffs, stands up and walked away from them. Leaving Kushina to stare at the blue sky with wide eyes and Minato is torn to follow his twin or console the red-head. Minato decided the latter and awkwardly shuffles his way to her.

“Are you okay, Uzumaki-san?” Minato hesitantly asks, as he looks down on Kushina’s face.

Kushina blinked, and Minato narrowly avoids their head clash together as Kushina quickly gets up while scowling and turned away.

“Uzumaki-san—?”

“ _What_?!” Her tone is high-pitched and when she turned around, Minato widens his eyes to her glassy violet eyes.

But before Minato could say anything, Kushina turned away again, and runs away. Minato doesn’t know what motivates him but he quickly jumps up and follows her.

“Uzumaki-san! Wait—“

“Leave me alone!” She yelled. Her tone is shaky and Minato could only fasten his pace to catch up with her because man, she is very fast.

Fortunately, she stopped at last, in the middle of cherry-blossom pillar road. She turned around and glares at Minato who is standing on a branch on one of the pink tree.

“What do you want, sissy?!” She yelled, furious, but make no move to bring Minato down.

Minato straighten his back unconsciously, “He doesn’t mean like that.” He begins, with the most calming and soothing voice he could muster, “Makoto always do something with reason. He doesn’t mean bad, i swear.”

Kushina looks torn but mostly still angry, and clearly doesn’t believe Minato’s words. “Is that all?!”

Minato blinks. “No,” he says, “Please forgive him, Uzumaki-san.”

When Kushina looks more furious Minato quickly cuts, “You have beautiful hair.” He says, “Makoto also thinks so.”

Kushina’s violet blue-ish eyes widened in surprise, but then she scowls again and turned away, runs as fast as she can. Minato, too surprised to catch up with her, could only watch as her figure disappear slowly. The younger Namikaze sighs, and begin to make his way back to the orphanage. Hopefully, Kushina will grow less and less hostile through time.

 

* * *

 

Kushina does grow more and more hostile but she ignores the twins most of the time. Makoto also ignores her, much to Minato’s exasperation. But it’s still better than to hide every time they saw strands of red long hair. The final exam is coming and even if Minato is sure he will pass with flying colors, he can’t underestimate the exam and thus throw himself in intensive study.

Makoto just snorts but follows him study anyway.

Then the exam day come and true to his prediction, Minato does pass with flying colors. His grins is very identical with his twin’s when he shows his hitai-ate in front of Makoto. The older grins back, nods in satisfaction, then pats Minato’s head.

But Makoto’s grin is not as bright as always and Minato frowns softly.

“Makoto—?” _–what about your exam? Where is your hitai-ate? What happened? Are you alright?_

As always, Makoto understand the unspoken questions just by the tone of Minato’s word, and he shrugs as an answer.

“I failed, my dearest brother.” Makoto softly says, pats Minato’s head for his own comfort, “the _ninjutsu_ test is right before the _taijutsu_ one, and i stupidly drain my chakra on _henge_ and one _bunshin_. I can’t do _kawarimi_ and my _taijutsu_ later is predictably a mess.” The older shakes his head and shows a strained smile.

Minato must’ve shown a very sad expression for Makoto’s expression softens, “I told you, right? I can’t be a _ninja_.”

The younger looks torn. Again, Minato is not yet ready to do something Makoto doesn’t take part into. And being a _ninja_ without his brother is... Minato suddenly could see their parents leave them that day, and he wonders if he should do the same as he looks at the hitai-ate in his hand.

Makoto senses his brother’s discomfort and sadness, he must be, as he takes the hitai-ate from Minato’s hand and slowly tied it on Minato’s forehead.

“There. My cute little brother finally take his first step to become the greatest ninja in this era.”

Just for this time, Minato doesn’t like how Makoto’s grins lift up all his doubts and worry. Makoto is grinning to comfort him when he himself needs comfort. That is so unfair. Minato moves to hug his older brother and fortunately, the older comply.

Did Makoto enter the academy with complete understanding of him will fail? Did he stay beside Minato all this time with knowing he will fail at last? Did Makoto put up with Minato so he could reach his dreams as Makoto knows how much Minato wants to be a _ninja_?

“Thank you, _onii-san_.” He whispered, because again, Minato realizes, his older twin is amazing and no matter how embarrassing he is, Minato still loves Makoto so much.

 

* * *

 

Soon after, they moved back to their house as Minato is now considered legal enough to own a property alone. While Minato spend the first week of him being a genin to adapt, Makoto spends it on cleaning the house. Minato sometimes helps, but with training and D-rank missions here and there, Minato could only help so much. His payments from missions are barely enough for both of them to eat, but their parents’s wealth is still there and they both uses it wisely to their need.

On the second week though, Makoto suddenly declared, “I want to see your Jounin teacher.”

Minato blinked as he chew his bread, and swallowed, “Sure.” He said as he ignored the wary feeling inside his head.

 True to his word, Makoto follows Minato on their meeting point—a bridge to Training Ground 7. His two teammates seems to be shocked, if not surprised, to see Makoto; a complete copy of himself. Especially now, with his calm and borderline calm expression, everyone will have a hard time differentiate him and his twin.

They stopped in front Minato’s teammates; Minato smiled to them and Makoto just nod. Not a minute later, Jiraiya appears in a puff of smoke between them.

“Good Morning, lads!” The white-haired man greeted.

“Morning, sensei.” They politely chorused.

Then he looks at Makoto, then Minato, back to Makoto and Minato again. He raised an eyebrow. “And this is—?”

Minato quickly steps up, “This is my older twin brother, Makoto Namikaze. Makoto, this is Jiraiya-sensei, my jounin instructor.” And he continue introducing his teammates with his older brother, too.

Makoto has this calculating look in is eyes again but it disappeared in a few seconds. By Jiraiya’s faint frown, he must’ve realized it too. Then Makoto grinned with his signature grin, and to everyone’s surprise, jumped on the railing beside Jiraiya.

“I trust my little brother to you, _ero-sennin_.”

His teammates choked by the nickname but Minato could only widens his eyes in surprise. Makoto rarely uses that kind of cold tone before. Jiraiya looks baffled, but Makoto is not finished. He narrows his blue eyes and leans to the adult’s face, pointing menacingly, “If I ever see him enter the hospital then i’ll hunt you down, skin your genital and cut it down to pieces. Do you understand me?”

Makoto leans away then, his face broke to a wide grin, he jumps down and pats Minato’s head. He waves to Minato’s still frozen teammates, “And please be nice to my little brother here! Help him in any way, don’t leave him alone, don’t betray his trust,” a pause, as his voice dropped and his eyes narrows again, this time exclusively to his teammates, “or i’ll kill you and hang your corpses to feed the crows.”

Minato goes slack-jawed he can’t even response to his brother messing up with his hair.

“Bye, Minato! Be nice, alright!” And with (maniac) laughs, he runs away, jumped up to a tree and leap to a nearby roof with grace.

Seeing his team-mates terrified yet shocked expression, and Jiraiya’s still baffled face, Minato regrets not listening to his wary instinct earlier. Ah, but...

Slowly, Minato asks his _sensei_ , “...why did he call you _sannin_ , _sensei_?”

“...hell if i know, kid.”

Yeah, he should’ve listened to his instinct earlier.

 

* * *

 

They are going to do their first C ranked mission tomorrow, and Makoto take a little time from his part-time job to eat with Minato and Jiraiya. Makoto has convinced the worried Minato that yes, he is fine, and being home alone is very boring, that they need more income; and so Minato reluctantly lets his brother do whatever part-time job he got. From delivering letters and newspapers around the village to help in _dango_ shop. Jiraiya seems to be okay with Makoto and goes along with them.

A time for them together has become somewhat rare and Minato is really happy that Makoto and Jiraiya are both here with him. They finished their _ramen_ and now just sitting down a tree’s shadow, the tree of them eat blue popsicles; the twin’s staring at the sky and Jiraiya is studying a scroll.

“Say, Minato, why do you want to be a ninja?”

Minato glanced to his twin, raised an eyebrow. Then he looks back at the sky and answered, “I want to be strong to protect people i love.”

Makoto seems pleased as he smiled and nodded, “And how would you do that?”

The younger frowns. Why is Makoto asking him this? And Minato is at loss for words to the question.

“By defeating your enemy, perhaps? Bad people?” Makoto says.

Minato blinks, frowns more deeply and reluctantly nods. “But there are no bad people in this world.” He softly murmurs.

“That’s right.” Makoto replies, “There’s no bad people in this world. Enemy, yes, bad people, no. But enemy is also temporary, my dear brother.”

Minato turns his head to face his brother and he sees the older’s grins before he looks up to the sky again. The glint in his sapphire eyes are so solemn yet serene, and Minato looks up to the sky, to look for something that cause his brother’s eyes turned like that, but find none except cotton-candy cloud.

“Because we are all human, dearest brother. Humans gifted with power called _chakra_ ; power which made leads to selfishness then breed hatred everywhere.” A pause, “you must remember _what_ is your enemy, what is your _purpose_ to fight, and _look underneath the underneath_.”

Minato looks to his brother beside him, to his wistful smile and his golden hair flowing in the air. He feels so comfortable just sitting beside his brother, their shoulders brushed, the air whistling a peaceful melody. They are together and Minato is content with that. But in their mission, Minato will be alone. He has Jiraiya-sensei and his teammates, of course, but he will not feel this peaceful, this calm with them.

And somehow, that makes him anxious. Actually, he's a little anxious from the moment they received the mission but Minato is hiding it very well; he looks calm and collected as always but he will not be able to hide it in front of his twin. Makoto knows this, Minato realized, thus his sudden exhortation.

Makoto chuckled then, like how he always understand Minato in silence, and pats Minato’s head gently, “You’ll be fine, dear brother, i’m sure you will. You are _my_ younger brother, after all. The one who will be very, _very_ awesome.”

Minato believes Makoto’s words; believes his cheerful tone which calms him, and smiled. Yes, he will be fine.

 

* * *

 

Little did the twins know that Jiraiya on the other side of the tree has stopped reading the scroll in his hand.

His mind wanders to the Toads, to Mount Myoboku, and to a certain prophecy. Of his student who will change the world, of the ‘golden twins’; of how one of the twins will be the master puppet of the world, of how his words and action will affect the world.

 _“One of the golden twin,”_ the old toad said, _“holds the key to the world._

_He has read the fate of this world._

_To spun strings of change or to let go, it’s all in his hands._

_To prosper or to ruin, it’s all in his words.”_

When he sees Makoto and Minato that day, he's shocked to see the Golden Twin in front of his eyes. He didn't show it of course, even in front of Makoto's calculating gaze and his threats. He's too shocked, too frozen to show any reaction to see the prophecy walking in front of him. He still has his doubts then, no matter how little it is; perhaps the Golden Twin is not them, perhaps it's other twin kids. But listening to the older of golden-haired twin speaks about the world and hatred, Jiraiya feels his blood runs cold. Looking at the twins leaning on each other, he can't see the brats as twelve years old twin kids anymore. He sees the Savior of The World and The Fate Holder in their shadows, and unconsciously, he grips the scroll in his hand tighter than before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kushina and Jiraiya makes appearances! And there’s a prophecy about Makoto! Oh boooyyy what did you get yourself into, Makoto? 
> 
> Thank you for all you guys's support! That means really really a lot to me! Thank you very much!


	3. Chapter 3

Minato opens his house's door grimly.

"Oh?" He hears, when he looks up he sees his twin with a thick book on his lap, sitting on the living room's sofa, a mug of tea on the desk. Makoto frowns when he sees Minato. The younger doesn't understand why; but he has a good guess. Probably because his (too) strained smile.

Makoto gently says, "Welcome back, _outouto_."

Minato blinks, and nods. He wants to go to his room and just sleep for the day but his feet make its way to his twin and he sits down slowly beside him. Makoto's expression softens, then he puts down his book and gently hugs the younger Namikaze.

But Minato still feel impossibly numb. He closes his eyes and all he could see is blood in his hands; stained his white sleeves and _kunai_ , and a cold corpse of the bandit staring accusingly at him. Unseeing, chilling red stained eyes judging him. Minato shudders. He doesn't mean to—never mean to—

"—kill him. I didn't mean to." He shakily says, to his twin's shoulder, "But i did, anyway."

"Oh brother," Minato hears Makoto murmurs, with a soft yet painful tone he rarely uses, "This is why i don't want you to be a _ninja_. That kind of expression never fits your handsome face."

His lips twitched upwards at Makoto's attempt at joking.

"That is the way of this world, brother dearest," Makoto begins, and Minato can feel his brother's hands pats his back and ruffles his hair in a comforting manner, "that is the way of _ninja_. Now tell me, did he try to harm anyone?"

Minato hums, reluctantly remembering the mission again, "He did." A pause, "he tried to kill Nohara."

"Then it's a right thing to do." Makoto firmly replies, "he would've killed one of you, or god forbid, _you_ , so a retaliation is on the line." A pause, "it's not your fault, not his, not anyone's. It's just the way this world works, brother."

Makoto is rarely a logical one between the both of them but when he does, he's always right. Like right now. Minato knows his twin's words hold true, and with grim acceptance, he lets his shoulder drop, and lets go the images of corpse and blood, pushed them to the back of his mind; as a reminder.

"You are home with me now, that's what important." Makoto whispers, and Minato nods, exhaled a shaky, long breath to calm himself.

They are home. There's a war on horizon but they are home. Together, they will be fine.

 

* * *

 

There's a loud, thud sound from in front of him and Minato looks up to see a big, dusty book in front of him. He raises an eyebrow to his twin's smug smirk in front of him.

"This is?"

"A book of _fuuinjutsu_ , released by the prestigious Uzumaki Clan."

Minato frowns. Makoto sounds so smug and proud and Minato doesn't understand why. " _Fuuinjutsu_? Sealing?" Minato stares confusedly at the book, then to his brother, "Why?"

"My, my, brother!" Makoto said, with that artificial high-pitched tone which he copies from a soap opera (always makes Minato wants to roll his eyes) complete with the shakes of his head, "Art of sealing could be described as foundation of life! You can do anything, and i repeat, _anything_ , with seals!"

The younger blinks. Now that sounds very interesting, indeed. But— "—and pray tell, dear brother, where did you get this book?"

Makoto must notices that his theatrical has rubbed off on Minato as he grins, "a granny who owns a barbecue shop give it to me. She said it's from her long, long time friend, and she figured i would enjoy it."

"And?"

His older brother's face lit like fireworks, "I did! It's _soo_ fun! You have to read it! _Fuuinjutsu_ is like puzzles! The elements are pieces of the puzzles and we can combine it to make nearly everything, brother! There are so many chances and combinations on its elements! Like, seriously! The combinations itself are nearly infinite! We have to study _fuuinjutsu_ together, Minato! We could be the best seal masters in this village!"

Seeing his brother's excited face and his ramblings on elements of _Fuuinjutsu_ written on the book, Minato wonders, how could other kids not see how much of a nerd Makoto is? He is a social butterfly, even more so than Minato, yes, but that doesn't mean Minato is the only nerd one between them. But nearly everyone except Shikaku believes that Makoto could not sit down still reading for more than one hour. If only they knew.

"Alright, Makoto, breath."

And Makoto does so, as he inhales a long breath to stop his ramblings, then smiles brightly to his twin. Minato shakes his head, but he's smiling, "Fine, then. Where do we start?"

Makoto's grins turns mischievous and Minato frowns suspiciously.

"First, brother dearest, of course, we'll begin with calligraphy!"

Minato shrugs. Calligraphy doesn't look that hard. And they will learn it together, anyway. It shouldn't be that frustrating, right?

 

* * *

 

Using their parents's wealth, the twins purchased a pair of brushes, unholy amount of papers on many sizes, ink, and other things needed to practice calligraphy. That including books on basic calligraphy and basic sealing; very limited sources on _fuuinjutsu_ they could find in the village.

They both read the books first, and being used to read since five years old, the books easily finished in four hours or so. It's weekend, Sunday precisely, and afternoon when they begin pouring ink and practice the real thing. First tries are always a mess but then, about half an hour later, Makoto makes calligraphy looks like a cake walk and for Minato, that is very, _very_ misleading.

Done with writing his name in calligraphy, Makoto takes a chakra paper which only used to make explosive seals or something like that, and Minato stops his brush to stare.

"What are you—"

But Makoto looks like he doesn't listen, as he opens a 'Basic Sealing For Ninja' book and opens the page which shows a design of silent smoke bomb seal. Minato suddenly feels his blood runs cold. He has a good guess of what is his brother doing. But he's also curious, so he lets his brother copy the design on the chakra paper in his hand.

"Try this." Makoto says, as he hands the seal to Minato. The younger frowns, but reluctantly nods and he ties the paper to a wooden shuriken.

Minato flows his chakra to the paper and quickly throws the _shuriken_ to their backyard garden. The _shuriken_ hits the dirt and with a low boom it explodes; Minato winces to see a little crater and Makoto adopts a thoughtful look, before he takes another chakra paper and begin copying the seal again.

"Makoto, i don't think—"

But Makoto seriously doesn't listen, as his hand swiftly creates characters and symbols on the paper. Minato could only sigh as he takes the newly made seal and ties it to another wooden _shuriken_. He lets his chakra flow to the paper and throws it again to their backyard. The explosion has receded and there are smoke around, but there's still a little crater where the _shuriken_ hits.

His blue eyes could only widens in surprise but Makoto hums, before he takes another chakra paper and swiftly crafts another seal.

This time, Minato is fully curious as he ties the seal on wooden _shuriken_. Again, he lets his chakra flow to the paper and he throws it again to their backyard. And surprise, there's a soft shushing noises before black smoke covers their backyard completely. Makoto's seal is a complete success. On third try. And that books said it needs at least three months or even one year to make that basic seal as calligraphy is a hard art.

Minato goes slack-jawed while Makoto looks at the smoke with his smug smile.

Quickly broke out of his stupor, Minato snatch a chakra paper and begin to copy the seal design on the book. But before he could try it, Makoto snatch his seal away and stares at his work.

"It's messy, Minato." Makoto points to the character on the corner right, "you write it too far to the left a few inches," his finger moves to the far left, "this one is above the required place, and your strokes are too bold. You see, this, this, aand this part should be more.. err... lithe, i think, than the stroke on this one. Also there are splotches of ink around the characters, it's messy. This won't work. This would probably explode like my first try." A pause, Makoto frowns, "but even that was not this messy. This might be dangerous. Hmm, burn this one. Your caligraphy is a mess, brother. Don't try any seal until you could write your name properly, alright."

Minato could only gawk at his twin, who is humming thoughtfully and pats his head like a puppy. His twin is hella genius on calligraphy—and sealing too, probably.

"Also," he pauses to frown in distaste, "we may need to ask Kushina for help. Her clan is very proficient on sealing, after all. She'll probably pummel me if she sees me so, i'm counting on you, _otouto_!"

"How are you so good with this?" Minato blurts out, incredulous.

Then Makoto grins, and shrugs, "Who knows, brother. Probably because i have studied this before, in my previous life."

Then he laughs so loud like it's a very funny joke and Minato could only stare. Just his twin and his antics...

 

* * *

 

As per Makoto's request, the next Saturday, Minato goes looking for Kushina to get her help on sealing but to his surprise, he can't find the red-head anywhere. He's sure he already runs around the village at least once and it is impossible to not see Kushina's bright hair. He already visited her house too and her caretaker said she went out this morning.

This doesn't sound right. Something in the back of his mind tells him that this is wrong. Whatever _this_ is.

The blond decided to comb the forest outside the village's border; just to satisfy his curiosity. Imagine his surprise when he sees strands of red long hair on the dirt. Minato looks around more and finds more strands of red hair on the bushes, branches of tree and forward, leading outside of village. This is a trail left by Kushina, Minato is sure of that. But why?

"Darling brother, what are you doing?"

His brother's voice breaks him out of his thoughts and Minato nearly slips his foot on the branch where he's standing. He turns his head to see Makoto grins, before he swiftly jumps to a branch closest to him, then another, until hes standing right beside Minato.

Makoto blinks, his blue eyes slowly widens to see strands of red hair in Minato's hands. The twins shares a look; understanding dawned on both of them, of how Makoto will not be able to follow Minato without chakra enhanced jumps, how this might be disastrous, and how Kushina might be in terrible danger.

"Go."

Makoto says, and Minato leaps away, leaving his brother behind. He follows trail of red hairs but does not pick them as he's sure Makoto follows the trail too, only more slower than him.

Minato jumps down and hides between bushes; he stalks the enemies from afar. There are three adults; two in front of Kushina and one behind her. They are walking around the forest and haven't noticed Minato yet. Minato silently follows them, simply waiting and observing; the rear one's holding a _ninjato_ and the two others seems usual. From their hitai-ate, it's from Kumogakure. He could see Kushina plucks out her hair and drops them every so often, and unconsciously smiles as he mentally praise the girl's courage and cleverness.

The blond hears a soft rustle; yet their enemy-nins hasn't realized, and soon enough, his twin silently jumps down from a tree and squats beside him. He looks ragged and tired but still grinning like crazy. Makoto pulls out few papers from his pant's pocket and when Minato looks at them, they are seals.

Silently, Makoto pulls out his hand and, Minato hands him few kunais. With quick moves he ties the seals to the kunais, hands them back to Minato, and jumps up to a nearby tree.

A pincher attack, then, Minato mused. Fine.

Minato throws two kunais at the same time; one between the two in the front and one straight to the ninjato-wielding nin's head. The first _kunai_ exploded with yellow, bright flash and black smoke, while the second one simply explodes with purple smoke which quickly fills the road. Minato jumps to the smoke and snatch one Kushina Uzumaki in bridal style, then leaps up to a tree.

Kushina widens his eyes to Minato, who is smiling an looking down at her, from the top of the forest.

"You leave a very clear trail," Minato says, and his smile widens, "like i said, you have beautiful hair."

The Uzumaki looks awe-struck but before she could say anything, Minato hears clanking metals and looks down to his twin standing tall in the middle of littered bodies.

Makoto's cold, empty gaze sends shivers down Minato's spine. He looks to the corpses; he finds one with twisted head, one with stab hole in the chest and twisted hand, and one with lacerated feet—the only survivor—looking up at Makoto with fearful, teary eyes. Minato jumps down beside his older brother and he notices a bloodied ninjato in Makoto's hand.

Minato hears Kushina softly gulps and he feels her turns her head away on his shoulder. His smile is strained when Minato says, "let's go back to Konoha. I'll... inform my _sensei_ to bring back the survivor."

Makoto drops the ninjato and when he turns around, his smile is so _off_ it makes Minato wants to cry. His bright, brave twin never shows a broken smile like that before. He's hurting, hurting _so much_ , Minato knows. And it's not because of little cut wounds all over his hands and feet, not because his swollen ankle, it's something else. Something he cannot _see_. It's very worrying.

"Kushina-san needs a proper care, brother, go first." Minato wants to argue, but Makoto cuts again, "I'll make sure he doesn't escape."

The younger Namikaze holds the urge to bit back, _He won't—he can't escape_. Because those cut wounds and how he bleeds profusely—he's in agony he can't escape. But one look from Makoto is enough for him to comply.

There are whimpers from said man, and grimly, Minato nods and quickly makes his way to Konoha, with Kushina calmly in his hands.

 

* * *

 

"Stop being a mother-hen, Minato, that's my job."

Minato rolls his eyes to Makoto's irritated expression. He sits down on a chair beside Makoto's white bed, and with unimpressed look he says, "someone gave me an exhortation to always be careful and considerate in battle."

Makoto closes his eyes, and Minato continues, "and that someone actually got himself a twisted ankle and cut wounds everywhere. How could i not worry, my dear brother?"

When Makoto opens his eyes again, it's to frown to Minato, "It's not like i could not walk," Makoto whines, then shakes his head, "they are exaggerating. Your _sensei_ is exaggerating. And i am older than you! Older brothers are strong so they will not cause their little bros worry! And i _am_ strong!"

Minato remembers how Jiraiya-sensei seems shocked when Minato explains what happened, and quickly jumps out to take both the survivor and Makoto in his hands. Both go the hospital. Minato doesn't know if Jiraiya-sensei is also care so much for his brother. "You're my older brother only by five minutes," Minato says with fond exasperation.

Makoto opens his mouth to retorts or to crack a joke, but then the room's door opens and one Uzumaki Kushina slowly enters. She walks to Makoto's bed, stops right beside Minato, and when they start a staring contest, Minato could feel sweat trickling down his head.

Then the Uzumaki break her gaze and mumbles, "I apologize. And thank you."

Minato is sure that was loud enough for anyone in this room hear but Makoto still asks, "What was that?"

Kushina grits her teeth, "I am sorry. And thank you."

To Minato's fear, Makoto picks his ear and with his most nonchalant tone he could use he says, "I'm sorry i think i hurt my ears a little could you repeat that ple—"

"I said i'm sorry! And thank you for saving me!" Kushina yells and Minato winces; both because of the volume and because that fierce scowl on her face. "Happy now, you disgusting brother-complex?!"

Makoto's smug smile quickly turned to shock by that nickname, and even laying on bed is not enough to stop Makoto from being fierce, "I dare you to repeat that, you constipated tomato!"

"Disgusting bro-com!"

"Rotten tomato!"

"Could you guys please—"

"Now brother, shut up." / "Minato, shut up!"

And as they continue throwing nick-names both insulting and stupid ("You ugly goat!" "Crippled monkey!" ) at the same time, Minato could only sigh as he imagines their upcoming sealing study. It will be fun. Much fun. So much joy it makes Minato wants to massage his head for his ever-growing headache.

 

* * *

 

"Makoto?"

Minato tries to rub his sleepiness away as he steps out of their shared bedroom, looking for his twin. It has been two days since Makoto was released from the hospital but he's not healing properly. Physically, yes. But mentally? Minato could see something lurking behind his twin's eyes, clouding his eyes with fear and guilt. Minato understands them very well; it's like his first kill that time.

If Minato always show a calm facade then Makoto is his bright grins. But he could only hide so much in front of Minato, because if one of them is in distress, the other would know. _Such is the bond of twins_ , their mother once said.

Through the moonlight which shines from the open window in the living room, he could see Makoto, sitting alone on the sofa and staring out to the moon. Silently, Minato walks to his twin and sits down beside him. Makoto hasn't reacted but Minato knows Makoto sees him there.

"Go back to sleep, _otouto_." He softly says, without even glancing at Minato.

Always put a tough face, Minato thinks as he sighs. Then, he spreads his blanket around Makoto and himself, sets a comfortable position on the sofa—leaning to his twin—and closes his eyes. "I'll sleep wherever you are." He mumbles.

Makoto's shoulder drop; days of pent frustration and sadness drops from the wall as Minato feels Makoto's trembling body leans to his, slowly relaxing. Minato holds Makoto's hands, because he can and because Makoto needs it. And for the silent message; _I'm here, we are safe, we will be fine_.

Minato hears a soft sigh and a soft murmur, "Thank you, Minato."

The twins fall to a dreamless, comfortable sleep.

 

* * *

 

About a week after Makoto released from hospital, Minato invites Kushina to help Namikaze twins with their sealing study. Frankly, it mostly to help Makoto since Minato's calligraphy only improved for a fraction; not enough yet t make anything.

Minato doesn't understand why, every time Makoto and Kushina meets, they always start with an intense staring contest.

This time, Makoto breaks out first, as he huffs and pulls out his crafted seal and shows it to the red-head. "I can't make this thing work, what do you think, tomato?"

Kushina looks very irritated by the nickname and is itchy to punch Makoto but she grits her teeth and focus herself on the seal instead. Soon enough, she frowns, and Minato excuses himself to start practicing more tedious calligraphy.

"What's this?" Kushina asks, then she points at something on Makoto's seal, "why do you put this character on smoke bomb seal?"

Then Minato hears Makoto's voice, "It's to make the color yellow. Or golden. But i don't know why I can't make it right."

"And this one?"

"That's so the flash lasts longer than two seconds. Also don't know if that could work."

There's a silence, and when Minato looks up from his calligraphy, it's to see Kushina gawk at his twin, "You—you made this by yourself?"

Makoto raises an eyebrow, "Of course. Have you ever find a yellow smoke bomb with golden flash anywhere?"

Kushina seems to gawk more, if that's possible. "And you just—learned sealing for what, two months?"

"Not even one month." Makoto shakes his head. "Two weeks. Gotta safe a distressed red haired princess and get bedridden for about a week, you see."

The Uzumaki understands the underlying message and scowls, "I don't believe you."

Both Minato and Makoto blinks.

"Excuse me?" Makoto asks, somehow offended.

Then Kushina shakes his head, her eyes still trailing the seal's design in her hands, "you can't make seal this complex just by two weeks. It's impossible!"

Makoto's expression turns carefully blank as he pulls out his other crafted seals; the success ones, Minato notes, and shows them to Kushina. The read-head looks at the seals, then at Makoto suspiciously, but takes them anyway, and begin inspecting them in silence. Her eyes widens by every seconds.

"You—you—"

Minato waits, watching the girl's expression carefully.

"You're a genius!" Kushina blurts out, somehow incredulous but awed at the same time.

Makoto shows his smug smile, rolls his eyes as if saying ' _Duh_ , damn right,' "I know i am."

"Now tomato, if you could stop looking at me like i'm a very _very_ handsome God who just descended from heaven and help me on this seal, i will appreciate that very much."

Quickly, the red-head scowls; probably by the nickname and by Makoto's narcissistic tendencies, and huffs, "Fine, bro-com, i'll show you the great knowledge of sealing by a _true_ Uzumaki!" Then the red-head snatch a nearby brush and begin drawing design with Makoto closely watching.

And as they both drown themselves on book, papers, and ink, Minato finally exhaled a relieved sigh. That's pretty peaceful for their first meeting and finally, Minato could continue doing his tedious calligraphy peacefully.

**13 Years Old**

Minato comes home to find his older brother hangs upside down; his ankle on windowsill while the rest of his feet must be outside, and his head touches the floor. Predictably, he nearly had a heart-attack. Slowly, Minato walks closer to his twin, who is frowning with one hand covers his mouth as if in deep thoughts.

But before Minato could say anything, Makoto lets his hand down and speaks, "I think i should start hiding."

Minato blinks. Far too used to Makoto doing weird things, he doesn't ask why does he hangs upside down, but, "From what?"

"From the world, dearest brother. From life."

Minato shows his most incredulous look he could muster at this brother. When he sees Makoto still won't budge from his position, he could only shakes his head. You know what, he doesn't want to know. Just Makoto and his antics.

 

* * *

 

When Minato enters his room the next day, it's to see a raven-haired teenager standing in the middle of the room. Minato blinks. He's surprised, yes, but he can't feel any hostile intent from the teen. He doesn't look suspicious either, for some reason.

Then said teen turns his head to look at Minato and he realizes why. That teen has the same face as Minato. That teen is his twin brother Makoto. With black hair. Minato stares blankly at his twin.

"From now on, Makoto Namikaze doesn't exist."

Minato instantly alarmed, he remembers Makoto's words yesterday; 'from the world, dearest brother, from life' and he frowns. "But you're—"

Makoto shakes his head, an apologetic smile on his face, "Minato Namikaze is the only son of Namikaze family." He slowly says, "my name is Makoto. No family name."

How Makoto could spew something so... painful like that with straight face and firm determination somehow disappoints Minato. Very much. Looking at Makoto's eyes, Minato realizes, his twin is serious. Dead serious. He wants to—to throw his family away, to throw _Minato_ away.

"Why?" Minato can't help but to ask.

He must've shown a sad expression, as Makoto looks very very apologetic, "this has to be done, brother. The outside world will forget Makoto Namikaze, as he doesn't exist anymore outside. But he exists here, inside this room, this house. Only in this house."

But what would it do to have a family nobody knows? What will it do to have a forgotten family? What good it will be if he can't talk about Makoto to anyone but himself? Why is this happening?

"This is not funny, Makoto."

"I never meant to be funny."

The twins has a staring contest then. For Minato, it seems to last forever as the more he looks at his twin's eyes, the more he realizes that Makoto is very serious. And it rips Minato's heart apart. Of course Minato knows Makoto does this for a reason. A very logical reason, it must be. But Makoto is not willing to tell the reason and Minato feels like he's left behind. Like—like Makoto Namikaze doesn't exist anymore. Like what his twin said. He's disappointed, and sad, and confused.

Is it because Minato, somehow? Did he do something wrong? Does Makoto simply doesn't want to be Minato's brother anymore?

"But—what will i say if they asked about you?" Minato tries again, simply because he doesn't want to lose his brother, not like this.

Makoto shows his painful, twisted smile then, "say, Minato-kun, where's your brother? I haven't seen him anywhere."

There's a silence, before understanding dawned on Minato (how Makoto won't budge even a bit and how Minato should speak nothing about Makoto at ll, from now on) and he, too, copies his brother's bitter smile.

"There it is. That's the answer."

Minato doesn't understand. And his childish side demands answer, his childish side is sad and very bitter to his brother. His childish side wants to also leave Makoto alone and forgets that he has an older brother.

"Jiraiya-sensei asked me if i want to travel with him." Minato tries again, _for the last time_ , "he asked if i want to leave the village and be his protege." He challenged.

Minato just wants to hear reason the reason, or apologize, or maybe Makoto will consider his choices on this, and Minato will also consider his option of leaving Makoto alone.

But to his disappointment, to fuel his sadness, Makoto simply turns away and nods, "This is a war time, Minato. Please have a safe trip."

Minato makes his expression blank, and calmly, silently, he walks out of the room, brokenhearted.

 

* * *

 

Jiraiya never see his genius student being this upset before.

It's so painfully obvious that he loses his calm and collected self; he frowns and twitch every so often, like something bugs his mind and he can't get rid of it. It puts his teammates on edge as Minato is the one they take notices, the one pulls them together on the ground.

Seriously though, he's never this upset before. Not even being in front of enemy and his first kill does this much damage on the blond boy. So it must be something to do with something precious or someone close to him.

..the twins never fought before. They are always together and completely in sync, so can it be—?

Jiraiya asks Minato to eat _ramen_ after training; to ask about his problem and probably to get answer for his offer yesterday. The man instantly become more alarmed when he sees Minato's strained smile and small nod. He's usually excited to eat _ramen_ with him. So this must be serious.

"Where's your twin, Minato?" Jiraiya carefully asks, as he watches Minato plays with his chopsticks and his unfinished _ramen_.

The blond looks up, twists his lips to one bitter, hurtful smile, then continue playing with his broth.

Jiraiya is very confused. Whatever problem it is, it's the one he can't ignore as this will disturb Minato's performances but this is also one which Minato should solve alone. And the kid now is in no mind to think levelly.

"Have you considered my offer, then?"

Minato seems relieved to the change of topic, as he nods, "Yes, _sensei_. I will travel with you."

His shaky voice betrays the determination on his face, and Jiraiya wonders if this the cause of him being so upset. It probably is, as the twins never get separated before, and Minato must be worried for his older twin.

"Don't worry, brat. I'll look for someone to be your twin's company."

Minato's blue eyes widens in surprise; Jiraiya could see his relieved and happy glint in those eyes for a split second before they disappeared. Then he nods, and smiles, far more relaxed than before, "thank you, _sensei_."

Jiraiya huffs. Just twins being worried for each other, perhaps. "No problem, brat."  
  


* * *

 

Makoto stares at the _jounin_ in front of him. The _jounin_ stares back.

He is very annoyed. No, really.

He just successfully made his dear brother, the Yellow Flash of Konoha, the Hero, the youngest ninja with 'Flee on Sight' order on Bingo book, upset with him. He just made his brother disappointed and sad so hard he wanted to just leave Makoto alone and travels with his pervert _sensei_. Makoto wants to tear his hair out. He knows Minato would be upset but not _this_ upset, damn it! And now said pervert _sensei_ offers a—a paedophil snake to be his teacher or care-taker!

His fingers twitched and Makoto scowls. Just because Jiraiya thinks he can't take care of himself doesn't mean he can give him to snake's lair! To be eaten by a disgusting zombie snake! Makoto doesn't want that! Like, at all! He hates Orochimaru! No matter what his cousin said about Orochimaru, how awesome he is or how handsome he is, he doesn't care! Old man megalomaniac Madara is far better than this creepy snake! His cousin was a crazy fangirl anyway!

"I don't like you." He rudely says to one Orochimaru, and both Jiraiya and Orochimaru widens their eyes, surprised. "I don't like snakes." Makoto continues.

Then Orochimaru disappears in a puff of smoke and while Makoto is smiling smugly, Jiraiya gawk at the older Namikaze like he just grew another head. Makoto doesn't care, really.

 

* * *

 

Makoto gawk at the white-haired _jounin_ in front of him. One Sakumo Hatake smiles at him.

"I like you." Makoto says, because Minato is upset to him and he doesn't care anymore to any of this _ninja_ shit, he doesn't care what the world thinks of him anymore. The White Fang blinks, surprised. He notices how Jiraiya has exhaled a long breath in relief but Makoto continues, "please teach me _kenjutsu_ , Hatake-san."

Makoto quickly bows a perfect ninety degree. When he straightens himself again, Sakumo seems to be amused, which Makoto doesn't know if it's good or bad; but being close to one minor infamous character is probably a good thing, right? Who knows, maybe he could stop Sakumo from _harakiri_ and teases little Kakashi for his entire life? That is a good thought there.

Jiraiya and Sakumo glances at each other before Sakumo nods, and as they make their way to the Hatake Compound, Makoto can't help but to think about butterfly effect. How much did his presence and this decision affect people? Hopefully he hasn't ruin something big. But with one Minato Namikaze, his dear younger brother whom he loves so much, being upset with him, Makoto isn't sure anymore.

(Yes, Makoto acts like the world is going to end just because Minato is upset with him but seriously, it's the first time he has a twin and when you've been living alone with your twin who's going to be the most favorite hero in the world, you can't help to think that yes, he is your world.

Yes, Makoto proudly admits he has brother-complex to Minato. Sue him.)

 

* * *

 

Minato looks at his older brother (black haired, twisted _bittersadapologetic_ smile, so _odd_ ) standing in front of him and can't help but to frown. He can't help but to curl his lips and silently asks, 'why?' 'why do you have to hide?' 'is it something i did?' 'what is my fault?' 'why are you doing this?'

But Makoto remains firm even if his gaze softens and he softly shakes his head. Makoto takes a step forward, pats Minato's head (instantly makes his tense shoulders drop; how he doesn't like his calming brother now) and grins.

"Come back and be awesome, dearest little brother."

Minato is smiling too; albeit strained, bitter and small because, even if he's sad, upset and confused, Makoto is still his bright brother who could calm Minato just by his smile.

.

.

( _And so the twins carves their own way, until the time their roads unite once again._ )

.

.

_A/N: I write this instead of doing my biochem presentation. Meh._

_Soo a lot of you asked why Makoto is similiar to Naruto. Dude. I wonder that too, lol.  
I mean, i make Makoto just based on 'cheerfully disgusting, over-protective older brother' and nothing more. Then it came out like Naruto, and i could only hope his personality will develop so you guys can differ him from Naruto. Spoiler though, he is a disgustingly cheesy uncle, lmao._

 


End file.
